1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to a wireless medical procedure environment, and more particularly accounting for transponder tagged medical procedure objects such as instruments and supplies in an environment in which medical procedures are performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is important to determine whether objects associated with a medical procedure, for instance surgery or child birth delivery, are present in a patient's body before completion of the medical procedure. Such objects may take a variety of forms used in medical procedures. For example, the objects may take the form of instruments, for instance scalpels, scissors, forceps, hemostats, and/or clamps. Also for example, the objects may take the form of related accessories and/or disposable objects, for instance surgical sponges, gauzes, and/or absorbent pads. When used in surgery, failure to locate an object before closing the patient may require additional surgery, and in some instances may have serious adverse medical consequences. In other medical procedures, such as vaginal child birth deliveries, failure to remove objects, for instance gauze or absorbent pads can lead to infections.
Some hospitals have instituted procedures which include checklists or requiring multiple counts to be performed to track the use and return of objects during surgery. Such a manual approach is inefficient, requiring the time of highly trained personnel, and is prone to error.
Another approach employs transponders and a wireless interrogation and detection system. Such an approach employs wireless transponders which are attached to various objects used during surgery. The interrogation and detection system includes a transmitter that emits pulsed wideband wireless signals (e.g., radio or microwave frequency) and a detector for detecting wireless signals returned by the transponders in response to the emitted pulsed wideband signals. Such an automated system may advantageously increase accuracy while reducing the amount of time required of highly trained and highly compensated personnel. Examples of such an approach are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,818, issued Feb. 22, 2000, and U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2004/0250819, published Dec. 16, 2004.
Commercial implementation of such an automated system requires that the overall system be cost competitive and highly accurate. In particular, false negatives must be avoided to ensure that objects are not mistakenly left in the patient. Consequently, a new approach to prevention of foreign object retention in medical procedure environments is highly desirable.